27 August 2019

Rosebud has been 'changing her number' over the past few weeks, by which she means that she is increasing her age.  She announced a few weeks ago that when she is six she will be old enough to be married, and also to shave her legs.  This is funny to me because for my other kids at this age, five was the infinite number, but for her, it's six.  Now in the last couple of days, she's begun announcing that now her number is fourteen, like Rose Pink.  She just makes me laugh.  She wants to grow up so much.

25 August 2019

Rosebud, in the middle of praying, says, "and thank you for Mom and for Papa, God... Mom! Now he's listening because I called his name!"  It feels sometimes like I'm raising a little atheist.  When I tell her that God hears her prayers, she says, "Oh, but not mine."  When I talk about God loving her, she says, "Oh, but he's not HERE."  She is reluctant to pray on her own so I often pray at night instead of her in the evenings.  I will be very interested to see how this plays out as she grows up.

20 August 2019

Mr. Brown asked Rose Pink if she wanted a quinceanera. She replied that although she loves princess dresses that she felt it would be "cultural appropriation " since she is not Hispanic. 

20 August 2019

Sometimes things are just wonderful.  On Saturday morning, Nut Brown made breakfast for us- mint chocolate chip pancakes that were so good.  We ate them with chocolate syrup.  Then he made us eggs as well.  He was so clearly pleased with himself and his successful meals, it was really nice to see.

19 August 2019

Rosebud, during sacrament meeting, when I remind her to be quiet during the sacrament and think about Jesus, says, "I'm not thinking about Jesus.  I'm thinking about Jesus' dad!"

17 August 2019

It's been a busy couple of weeks!  My parents came to visit the first weekend in August.  We spent Saturday buzzing around downtown- we went to the Bullock Texas History Museum, and especially enjoyed the Cowboys in Space temporary exhibit on the top floor.  Then we walked around downtown looking for a place to eat (ended up at Subway) and in the afternoon we went on a tour of the capitol building, and then stopped in to see St. Mary's Cathedral downtown.  They invited us back to the hotel to go swimming, so we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then swimming, then to bed.  The day didn't turn out quite like Nut Brown had expected, but the rest of us had a pretty good time.  The next day was Sunday, so we went to church together and then my parents spent the afternoon playing games with us at home. 

That Sunday (Aug 4) they announced a fireside to explain the new ward boundaries as they were splitting our ward.  No surprise since sacrament meeting attendance was approaching 400.  Mr. Brown and Rose Pink attended and reported back to the rest of us.  This ward split will be traumatic for Rose Pink since most of her friends will be in a different ward now.  Fortunately we still have seminary and some friendships already established to help her.

The following week we had three sets of visitors in overlapping shifts.  Mr. Brown's best friend BJ came down from Dallas with his family (three daughters - roughly Rose Pink, Nut Brown and Bobo ages) and on Friday we went to Interspace Caverns with them (Mr. Brown the dwarf was so happy to be underground!).  We met up with them on Saturday morning at Barton Springs and swam and shivered in the cold water.  Our kids all got along really really well... BJ has been thinking about moving to Austin, and his kids were ready to go after meeting and befriending ours.  It's always nice when your friends' kids get along with yours!

After swimming we had lunch at food trucks (fun) and that evening Mr. Brown celebrated his birthday by inviting BJ and family, plus our local friend Derek and his family (two teenage daughters) and my brother Eric and his family (flying into Austin for an academic conference) out for dinner to a Korean BBQ restaurant.  Mr. Brown does love nourishing people through food and we had a lovely dinner together and a really fun time.  The teenagers plus Nut Brown were at one end of the table and had a very good time, and Mr. Brown and BJ and Derek were in the middle, eating and talking, and I got to have a lovely catch up chat with BJ's wife sitting with Bobo and Rosebud and her youngest daughter at the other end.  Unfortunately Eric and Kate missed their plane and missed the dinner.

On Sunday we had our first meeting with our new ward (most of the same people, very few of whom we know) which was a little weird but went okay.  Eric and Kate came by in the afternoon and we got to hang out with them and their baby, which was great.  Their baby is just at the stage where he wants to practice walking so our kids, especially Nut Brown, had a great time walking him around all over the house on their fingers.  He is a very busy little boy, that baby.  Sunday night our friend Christy called and said, "I'm in Dallas, can I and the kids come by for a couple days?" and of course we said yes.

Monday we met up with Kate downtown and went to the Bullock Texas History Museum again!  This time Mr. Brown got to come with us.  The kids were a little bored since we had just been there a week ago, but it's still a cool museum.  We walked down to Cava for lunch, which I have been so excited to share with Mr. Brown.  Then Kate went back to the hotel and we came home to try and cool off.  It's been SO HOT.  Like an oven.

Christy arrived Monday evening with her two kids in tow (7 and 5).  It was so great to see them!  Bobo had such a happy time playing with her 7yo daughter.  He needs more friends.  He was so much happier with someone around to play with him. 

Tuesday I went to work as usual, and Mr. Brown hosted both Christy and Kate at the house.  It was Eric and Kate's anniversary, and they'd asked if we could double-date that night for it.  Christy and Rose Pink graciously agreed to baby-sit everybody, so Eric and I ubered up from downtown and met Mr. Brown and Kate at Kerbey Lane for dinner.  Then we went over to Main Event and played laser tag and mini golf and pool until we remembered what time it was.  It was a lot of fun together, and we said goodbye to them regretfully at the end of it.  Eric said that this is an annual conference, so we may see them again next year for it!

On Wednesday, I went to work again.  Mr. Brown and Christy went swimming in Barton Springs, and then when I got home we went to Salt Lick for barbecue for dinner.  That was some good barbecue!  Christy left at some point on Thursday (I was at work again) and we were finally able to get some rest.  All of this visiting was wonderful but we are exhausted, and the house is really dirty because we lost two Saturdays of cleaning.  But it has been so great to see friends, people who really like us, and to get out and see a bunch of cool fun things in Austin!

2 August 2019

Bobo has learned to ride a bike!  He's been practicing much so that we can ride to the library together.  He rides around the block by himself, and starts himself, and he can slow down and brake satisfactorily.  We are working on finer control to better manage turns and riding on a sidewalk, and then we'll head for the library. :)  He is super cool.  He was lukewarm about learning, but he picked it up pretty quickly and is very proud of himself.